View from the corner: Alamodome bout highest-rated of year

Updated 10:23 pm, Saturday, December 29, 2012

The Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Marco Antonio Rubio fight on Feb. 4 at the Alamodome was the most-watched boxing match of the year.

The bout, won by Chavez by unanimous decision, drew 1.9 million HBO viewers and capped a standout year for boxing on television. In all, there were 16 live bouts on cable that attracted an audience of 1 million or more.

Fourteen of those were on HBO; the other two were on Showtime, according to Nielsen Media Research.

HBO is in 30 million homes, while Showtime is in 22 million.

Chavez ended up as the most-watched star of the year. He fought in two of the top-three largest cable fights, and his pay-per-view bout against Sergio Martinez on Sept. 15 was the fourth-highest on PPV.

Benitez on mend after stroke: Retired Puerto Rican boxing great Wilfred Benitez has been hospitalized in the United States territory after suffering an apparent stroke.

Benitez's family told the Associated Press that the former fighter, 54, will undergo tests but appeared to be doing better.

Benitez (53-8-1, 31 KOs) was 17 when he beat Antonio Cervantes on March 6, 1976, to become the youngest fighter ever to win a world title. But he struggled in recent years with traumatic brain injuries.

South Texas winners: Ramos Boxing Team was the open division champion at the recent 2012 South Texas Championships at the Bennett Fitness Center.

Randazzo Brothers Boxing won the novice team title.

The 132-pound novice bout between Ivan Lopez of Alamo City boxing and Jose Flores of Randazzo was named the tournament's outstanding bout.